


The Dutiful Son

by ceria



Category: The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Gen, POV Outsider
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-06-17
Updated: 2012-06-17
Packaged: 2017-11-08 00:05:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,923
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/436904
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ceria/pseuds/ceria
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She never understood Phil, but she was always proud of her brother.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Dutiful Son

**Author's Note:**

> Written for [ this prompt at Avengerkink.](http://avengerkink.livejournal.com/4305.html?thread=3325393#t3325393) (Coulson's funeral from the POV of his cellist girlfriend or maybe one of his normal family members, who all thought that he was just a banker or a government clerk or something…)

Mother clung to her arm, white kerchief already out in her free hand, dabbing at her eyes. Dana had argued against the viewing but Mother wouldn't hear otherwise. For compromise, they agreed to a few evening hours the night before the service.

No one from his work would trek out this far for his funeral, Dana suspected, but to tell their – her – mom that would be cruel. It wasn't only that Phil acted like he had no friends; so many people had died during the attack last week. The bank had been practically totaled and it was during the lunch hour – typically when they were their busiest, or so Phil often complained about when Dana was in town and had tried to meet him.

"I'm going to miss him," Mrs. Coulson muttered and Dana tightened her arm.

"I know, me too."

"Who's going to fix my sink the next time it clogs?" she asked, glancing up.

"I can ask Troy to do it."

Mother did them both the courtesy of not laughing. 

She didn't hear the doors open but Dana turned her head at the click of heels behind her before the visitor reached the carpet, the noise absorbed into silence. She approached them directly, not glancing at the closed casket. "Mrs. Coulson, Mrs. Eppry, I'm so sorry for your loss."

"Thank you," Mother said and Dana only nodded, unable to speak at first. She was a stunning woman; dark hair in a neat bun, her navy blue dress lined with silver trim and buttons and looked more like it belonged on a model than someone in banking management. Tiny butterfly bandages lined her right cheek.

"Did you work with my son?" 

"I did," she said. "My name is Maria and I just wanted to tell you…" she hesitated, biting her lip, "when then bank was attacked, Phil didn't hide in his office. He did everything he could to help, to keep others calm, to get people to safety. Our management's policy is money first but Phil didn't care about that. In the end, he protected those who couldn't do it themselves." Maria opened her clutch and pulled out a tissue and dabbed the corner of her eyes with it. 

"He is – was – a good son," Mother said. 

A few more people in dark suits and dresses filed into the room and even that was more than Dana had expected. So many people had lost friends and family and to make the two-hour trek because Mother wanted Phil's funeral near their home… it was unbelievable. 

Her brother was family and she loved him, but Dana had never _understood_ Phil. He never spoke of dating or wanting children. In fact, he often deflected those questions with subtle humor that Troy had hated. Her husband always suspected that Phil was making fun of him, but Dana knew better. Phil wasn't a bully and while he used sarcasm on himself, he never disrespected Dana's husband.

"I think I want to sit down," Mother said and before Dana could move, a tall, blond giant of a man, whose suit did nothing to hide the muscles beneath it, brought over a chair.

"Here you go, Mrs. Coulson." He took her arm when Dana could only stare and helped her sit. Kneeling at her feet, he held out one hand.

"I’m Steve, Mrs. Coulson, and I'm here because your son was an amazing man."

"Did he help you too?" she asked and Steve looked shocked for a second, then nodded.

"I wasn't there when it happened, but yes, when I needed to make some important decisions, it was your son who did that for me. I just wanted to tell you that you raised a good man." He glanced at Dana, "and a good brother."

For a brief, brief moment, the man kneeling at Mother's feet resembled the man who'd been in the poster on Phil's bedroom wall when they were kids. Dana blinked and turned away, unable to look at him again without crying. She was Phil's family and she wasn't here to be comforted by people who barely knew him. She was here to…

The woman and man approaching the casket… they both wore fitted black three-piece suits, and they were both wearing ties that belonged to her brother.

"Hi," she said, reaching out to touch the tie the woman wore, but she stepped out of reach just as the man stepped between her and Dana.

"Mrs. Eppry, Dana," he said. "I'm sorry about your brother." The broken words were whispered and the tiny woman with him pressed herself against his side, their fingers entwined. 

"Did you work with Phil, Mr.?" she asked.

"Clint," he said, posture relaxing and Dana touched the tie he wore. "This is Nat."

"You're wearing his favorite tie, Clint. Why's that?"

"Because it was his favorite," he said with a shrug. "It felt like the honorable thing to do." His voice broke over the word honorable and Dana had no idea why. The two of them were looking at each other again, their bodies pressed together in a way that seemed more like support than intimacy. And yet, the way they moved around each other, she could only assume they were a couple.

"Our father gave him that," she said and both of them stopped looking at each other to focus on her again. Unnerving that.

"Really?" Nat asked. "He never told us the story behind it."

"When he was sixteen, he told father he wanted to help save the world some day. Father told him that he needed a plan to do that. A way to fight because Phil didn't want to fight," Dana took a deep breath and looked at the ceiling for a moment, composing herself. "So they talked about the military and becoming an officer and using his brain and not just brawn; that battles can be won with smart planning. Dad bought him that tie the next day and gave it to Phil over dinner. He told Phil to go to college, to join the army and see what we sacrificed for peace, and then to put his brain to good use and get a job where he had to wear this type of armor in order to change the world."

"Thank you for telling us." Clint handed her a tissue and Dana wiped her eyes, not caring about the makeup she wore.

"I don't know when and why he gave up that dream but that woman over there said Phil died saving a lot of people at the bank. I hope that's true."

"Your brother," Nat said fiercely, "is a hero. Your father and you should be very proud of him."

"I've always been proud of him," Dana whispered and Nat shifted, letting Dana see the tie she wore again and her sob turned to laughter. It was bright green with large red hollies on it.

"What's the story behind this tie?" Clint asked.

"He hated it," she admitted. "My daughter picked it out and insisted we buy it for Uncle Phil. He wore it all Christmas day because she was so proud of it and all of us laughed about it that night. It's not his style at all."

"He wore it every Christmas Eve," Nat said. "Every year we could have dinner together and he would tell us about Jennifer and how much he was looking forward to seeing all of you the next day."

"You worked at the bank too?" Dana asked, surprised, and Clint grinned at her.

"We worked with your brother, yes."

A thin man with graying hair stood at the casket, his head bowed over, his watch beeping. Clint and Nat looked at each other and excused themselves immediately to go to him. "We'll take care of this," he said. "Go see how your mother is doing."

Another gorgeous woman with long red hair was sitting next to her mother, holding her hand so Dana excused herself to use the restroom instead. A tall man in scruffy black clothing that definitely had seen better days stood in the foyer, staring into the room and Dana stopped next to him, feeling tiny. The trench coat was silly looking but maybe he didn't have much else to wear – those boots should have been replaced a long time ago.

"Can I help you?"

"Did you know him?" the man asked, pointing to the casket.

"My brother," she said. His knuckles were scratched up and standing this close, she wondered if maybe he was homeless. "Are you hungry?" she asked. "We have food in the other room if you like." He turned to look at her and she started at the eye patch and scars around it. Not homeless - maybe he'd served with her brother in the army and couldn't actually come into the room. She'd seen it before with some men – too unwilling to get that close to death one more time.

"I'm just here to watch, Mrs. Eppry," he said. "But thank you."

"I think Phil would have liked that," she said, holding out her hand to shake his. He smiled at her for a second then nodded in agreement. As scary looking as he dressed, Dana had never felt _safer_ standing next to someone before, except her father.

Not one of these people struck her as bank employees. They each watched the room as if waiting for something to come bursting through the walls. Each of them spoke to her mother and the last man in the room, the one with the woman who resembled Pepper Potts, looked like…

No, she had to be imagining that. Dana sat next to her mother and looked around the room, trying to reassess what she saw with what she really knew. Clint and Nat hadn't left the end of the coffin since they approached it and too many people in the room where approaching them as if they had lost someone in their family too. 

"That nice man gave me a business card," Mother said. "I told him how Phil always took care of my house for me and he said that if I ever needed anything, to call and talk to his butler, and he'd make sure it would be taken care of. Isn't that nice?"

Dana nodded her head, eyes wide at the white business card that only had a phone number, the name JARVIS, and the Stark Industries logo on it. It made no sense but what really did today? Phil was her brother and she loved him but she only talked to him once every couple months and saw him a few times a year. These people who claimed to have worked with him probably saw him every day.

She had Troy and Jennifer and recently their mother had moved in with them into a mother-in-law attachment but what had Phil had in New York? She'd never been sure since he never talked about dating or even much about work but Dana suspected that these people were as much family to Phil as she and her mother. 

Who would have thought that? Tomorrow they would be gone and Phil would be buried next to her father and Dana would never see them again. But then, they would never see Phil again either. Dana hugged her mother and looked at her watch. She couldn't wait for Troy and Jennifer to arrive so all of her little family could be together. Dana suddenly wanted to be around people she knew and understood.


End file.
